The Place Promised in Our Early Days

(2004)

★ 6.6 IMDb · 570 votes

Genres: Animation, Adventure, Drama, Romance, War, Sci-Fi

Year: 2004

Runtime: 91 мин

Country: Japan

Director: Макото Синкай

Cast: Хидэтака Ёсиока, Масато Хагивара, Юки Нанри, Унсё Исидзука, Кадзухико Иноуэ, Риса Мидзуно, Хидэнобу Киути, Масами Ивасаки, Эйдзи Такэмото, Такахиро Хирано

Plot

In a post-war alternative timeline, Japan is divided into the North, controlled by the Union, and the South, controlled by the United States. A mysterious high tower rises within the borders of the Union. Three high school students promise to cross the border with a self-built airplane and unravel the secret of the tower.

The story takes place in a alternate postwar period, in 1996, where Japan is divided. Hokkaido is ruled by the "Union" while Honshu and other southern islands are under US authority. A tall tower was built on Hokkaido, which could even be seen from Tokyo. In the summer of 1996, three middle-school students make a promise that they'll cross the border with a self-constructed plane and unravel the tower's secret, but their project was abandoned after the girl, Sayuri Sawatari, became mysteriously ill and transferred to Tokyo. Years later on the brink of another war Hiroki Fujisawa finds out that Sayuri had been in coma since then, and he asks Takuya Shirakawa to help him finding a way to wake her up.